Homers, Nix lead Yanks to win over BoSox

This one didn’t really have the feel of a typical Yankees-Red Sox game, mostly because it didn’t take four hours to complete. The two sides traded leads in the middle innings, but ultimately the Bombers came out on top. It’s their ninth win in their last eleven games. Let’s recap…

Bombs Away: Three of the first seven Yankees who stepped to the plate hit a solo homer off left-hander Franklin Morales, who own eight of the eleven homers he’s surrendered this season. Nick Swisher did the honors in the first, then Curtis Granderson and Russell Martin went back-to-back in the second to give New York a three-zip lead. Derek Jeter tagged Morales for a fourth solo homer in the fifth to tie the game.

PFPhil: Obviously a lot happened in between the second and the fifth, specifically a four-run third inning for the Sox. Phil Hughes shot himself in the foot by throwing away a double play ball with one out and a man on first, and it snowballed into a disaster inning capped off by a three-run homer by Dustin Pedroia. Outside of that one inning, Phil allowed just two of 20 batters he faced to reach base. He threw a ton of changeups, I’m talking 29 out of 106 total pitches (27.4%). That has to be a career-high. None of those four runs were earned (laughable, but whatever), and otherwise Hughes threw a surprisingly solid game.

NY Nix: Jayson Nix has done a lot of very nice things for the Yankees this season, including a number of big hits. His latest was a piece of beauty, a two-out, two-strike single on a slider away that he reached out and just poked to right with men on the corners. Clayton Mortensen had come in and thrown nothing but sliders to the first two men he faced, so nice job by Nix to make the adjustment and put the ball in play. The single gave the Yankees a 5-4 lead in the sixth.

Leftovers: Swisher tacked on an insurance run with a solo homer in the seventh, the 12th time in his career he’s gone deep from both sides of the plate in the same game. That’s the second most in baseball history behind Mark Teixeira (13), and has a lot to do with starting pitchers staying in the game until their arms fell off back in Mickey Mantle’s day … outside of a Carl Crawford double off David Robertson (literally), the bullpen was flawless in their two innings. Fourteen of the final 15 Red Sox to bat made outs … every starter had a hit except for Robinson Cano and Ichiro Suzuki while Swisher and Grandy were the only ones with two hits … Jeter’s homer was his tenth of the season, giving the Yankees ten players with double digit homers, tying a franchise record. Nix is the next closest at four so don’t expect an eleventh guy with 10+ homers … ready for this? In their 12 head-to-head games this season, the Yankees have out-homered the Red Sox 28-9. 28-9!

MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, FanGraphs the nerd score, and ESPN the updated standings. The Tigers beat the Orioles, so Baltimore is now seven back in the loss column. Assuming the Rays beat the Angels, they’ll remain six back. Boston is a full 14 games back. The Yankees will look to further bury the Red Sox on Saturday afternoon, when David Phelps gets the ball against Jon Lester in the FOX broadcast matinee. Check out RAB Tickets for some last-minute ticket deals.

Minor League Report
I don’t have the time for a full blown DotF tonight, but I will provide you with links to the box scores: Triple-A, Double-A, High-A, Low-A, Short Season, Rookie GCL. 2B Corban Joseph, CF Melky Mesa, 1B Luke Murton (two), C Gary Sanchez, 3B Dante Bichette Jr., and DH Peter O’Brien all hit homers. RHP Dellin Betances got hammered for seven runs in four innings.